Monday, September 8, 2008

Gil Scott-Heron - genius, activist, brilliant poet, jazz-funk pioneer, rap pioneer, possessed of a beautiful spoken and singing voice, possessed of both a searing intelligence and a sense of humour. The guy's had his troubles with drugs in recent years, and we can only hope he gets it together and keeps going, because the world needs more people like him. And in combination with Brian Jackson he's just unbeatable. Gil for President! Brian for VP (with his hair in a bun)!

Vildgolia - excerpt

Some unreleased live recordings sound like they've been recorded from the venue's bathroom, then there are the quality ones like this one. This fantastic, powerhouse two hour performance was recorded straight from mixing desk at the Bottom Line club into a PCM, an early digital recorder, then transferred to WAV and then FLAC. It sounds great, and is now my favourite live Gil Scott-Heron album. It just needed a cover, so I made one. (Today's downloads have the WAVS, and also a 320kb MP3 version I've made from the WAVs)

This performance comes a year after the mostly-live album "It's Your World" and the week before the release of "Bridges". It's comprised mostly of tracks from the latter, with some favourites and one-offs added. These are not just renditions of album tracks - the Midnight Band is steaming, with long percussion sections and improvisation. So even if you've got all of these tracks, and all of his live albums, you really, really need this.

'Hello Sunday Hello Road'- excerpt

Gil starts with a ten minute monologue that turns into the poem "New Deal". He starts seemingly casually talking about the state of the world, and builds into a scathing media commentary, an africanist world perspective and an account of a black hostage taker in Cleveland whose demands were "All white folks leave Earth!". The starker and darker his commentary becomes, the more humour he brings in ... It's extraordinary to hear his summation of "change" at the end of the monologue and to realise the resonance of his discourse on contemporary thought and politics.

'Home is Where the Hatred is' - excerpt

This band is HOT - up to three people on rhodes with Brian Jackson at the forefront - check the fifteen minutes of keyboard and brass workouts on "Home is Where the Hatred Is" - three or more people on percussion under the guidance of Barnett Williams, latin-tinged trumpet solos from Delbert Taylor, great sax work from Allan Barnes ...

The percussion workouts here are insanely good. The band follow the monologue with the five minute percussion / chanting of "Gumbai", and there are six minutes in the middle of "The Bottle"with just latin percussion and voice - check this excerpt :

'The Bottle'- excerpt

I first saw Gil perform in 1994, around the time his comeback "Spirits"was released. He was pretty lost at the time, and kept wandering off stage to do ... something ... it wasn't a great show. But then I saw him in January 1999, also at the Bottom Line, in a special reformation gig of the Midnight Band with Brian Jackson - and they were spectacular. I think there's something about the intimacy of that club that brings out the best in people.

I could go on all day and all night about how good this 1977 concert is - but i'll hold back and say : just download it and enjoy it.

SIDEBAR : ALLAN BARNES (woodwinds & synth)

Some of these players had cut a limited edition jazz-funk album the year before called "Freedom Serenade" under the name Malone & Barnes and Spontaneous Simplicity. It's got a Blackbyrds/Mizells feel. Together with keyboardist/vocalist Johnny Malone, saxophonist Allan Barnes (who was also in the Blackbyrds) co-led the series of graduates from Donald Byrd's influential jazz program at Howard University. The album also featured other players from this live session : trumpeter Delbert Taylor, bassist Siggie Dillard and some guest work from Brian Jackson. Malone and Barnes also wrote the funky track "Disco Dancin" on the 1979 Taste Of Honey album"Boogie Oogie Oogie"

Soon as I saw this at the top of the page I thought "Cor what if it's got Racetrack in France on it" - and it has! Seriously can't wait to hear this, had a vinyl copy of "It's Your World" for nearly 20 years now but it never occured to me that there might be some serious Gil bootlegs out there too.

Thanks for a superb blog, you and The Bodega are killin' it right now!

Thanks for making this one available Simon--I won't be able to listen to it fast enough!

By coincidence, I've been listening to "It's Your World" on the drive home from work the last couple of nights. That version of "Home..." is the best I've heard so far--killer four-minute electric piano section! But I have a feeling this set will stack up favorably.

Johnv, this one does stack up, quite different versions of "Home ... " and "The Bottle", and all the other tracks are different ones, hope u enjoy. Sawanotsuru, I sent Ish over to Bodega yesterday on another tip so I think he'll be hitting "Freedom Serenade" too .. :)

thanks for this, Simon. And for the usual leads to other great albums.

I really love Gil Scott-Heron, but he makes me a little sad. Not for wrecking his life on non-recreational drugs, but for being so right in so much of his analysis and emotion and for being so wrong his in estimation of how bad things could get. I give him a pass on the drug use... a man who sees that much is entitled to freak out and no longer want to see it anymore.

Here's an example of what I mean: One of his long raps... I think it's "The Bicentennial Blues" goes on to dissect American society. Now to date myself, the seventies when Gil was "preaching" was when my political consciousness was formed. Me and my radical friends snapped up songs like "Winter in America." Anyway, in "Bicentennial Blues" he starts to justifiably make fun of varous American politicians. Jimmy Carter, he calls "skippy" after the peanut butter. The crowd laughs. Ronald Reagan, he says, acted like General Franco (I think I have that right) when he was governor of California "and now he acts like somebody's gonna vote for him for president?" The crowd roars in disbelief and hilarity.

At the risk of injecting too much politics into Musicblog land, well, Reagan did get elected president and those were dark days in America despite what the nostalgic establishment says. If only we had known that coming out the other side of that crucible laughable Jimmy Carter by comparison would turn out to be one of the last American leaders with moral authority before institutionalized corruption, indifference, greed, and military adventurism would become so characteristic of American society, defeating all that 1970s optimism that the people were gonna make it better, that unity and righteousness were soon to bring liberation.

Gil Scott-Heron was a prophet in his day. If only we had listened! Oh yeah, he also made GREAT music. Thanks again Simon.

Thanks for your comments Ish. As mentioned in the post, it really struck me how (sadly) his optimistic finish to the long conversation of "New Deal" referred to the necessary work ahead, and to see it still undone 31 years later ... though at the same time it's intriguing to see some of that discourse of change and public/personal responsibility echoed in Obama's platform. I would hope that an Obama victory could have, as one of its immediate base effects, the capacity to give people some sort of sense of renewed optimism - perhaps even Gil himself.

i'm speechless.....after reading through all those comments it's a good feeling to see that it's people out there that have a pulse for social commentary and music that enlightened that interest....such a shame we don't have any heros willing to use the medium of music like this today.....thank you simon....i can't wait to get into this one....Peace

Simon--just finished listening to this one and I am really blown away. Truly I can't thank you enough for making this one available.

Love this version of "Bottle," the added horn section is almost (dare I say) disco-ish to my ears but it really grooves. The rest of the set just doesn't let up from beginning to end.

Ish--you are dead on in your assesment of Gil's vision. He was so right on target. And he actually had something to say, a quality that is lacking throughout society these days--whether in music, politics etc.

Another thing I find interesting is how educated the audiences at Gil's shows seemed to be--they really seem to be up on their current events and had a feeling for what was going on in the world. And this was before the internet age too; it's a shame we as consumers don't know more and ask more questions.

Well, I'll put the soapbox away. Thanks for the great post Simon and thanks to all who shared their thoughts on a true giant of music.

just thought i would come back to say thankyou so much for this extra special recording. i wish there were more live LPs with this much talking in between the songs (any reccs, anyone?). really enjoying all the comments here too. i guess the kinds of music being shared on blogs like this attracts certain types of people, eh? its really cool to (virtually) be in such awesome company. rock on!

It is really difficult for us, living outside the US, to understand why McCain is so popular. If it was up to the rest of the world, I think Obama would win with a landslide victory (Obama's approval in a recent poll here in the Netherlands was around 80 percent, but who cares).

Let's pray that Obama wins and that he will bring some real social change and be able to restore international relationships. Otherwise, we would desperately need a new Gil Scott Heron

SImon, Can't thank you enough for this live date. I saw Gil in the 1970s no less than five times (he played Detroit a lot since his family is from there and he was liviung between CHicago and NY at the time. These cats tore it up live. Just TORE it up. Brian Jackson and his musical units --there are about three currently--still do. I am SOOOOOO lookinf forward to this..

I know this may sound "ignorant" but were a lot of people hip to Gil Scott and Brian back in the day during the "peak" of their powers? Not that they have fallen off or anything but a lot of what Gil says is sooo on point it just blows me away that he is not studied and poured over in academia like they do Mozart, Joyce, or Hemingway. I just think his words are on another level and always will be.

Really thanks a lot Simon I often get goosebumps and tear up after hearing a lot of the records you share and this one is certainly no different.

Thinking back to the days when sessions like this were just mythical to us in the UK, it hard to believe anyone can now not only find it, but listen to & download it. My generation (born late 60's early 70's) filled in the spiritual, political & musical gaps left I by our parents with the help from artists like Gil. In the mid/late 80's he played a free concert in Clapham Common, London, in celebration of Mandela. As he shouted "what's the word?" it wasn't 30 & 40-somethings shouting back "Johannesburg", it was 1000s in their teens and 20's who were picking their own way through Stevie, JB, Sly, Parli/Funk, Miles, Coltrane, etc, etc. In some there was renewed passion for political & cultural revolution. Imagine then a discussion about global neighbourhoods where we can share any music for free!; What else would we have demanded? Free literature & poetry? Free art (Can anyone link me to a decent file of this [http://christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?pos=2&intObjectID=5111077&sid=])?

Now we have much of this - what are we gonna do??? And while I'm on it, please support http://laptop.org/vision/index.shtml

On the Bottom Line tapes, I remember trodding the streets of Soho, Camden, and elsewhere searching for tunes like Revolution, Bottle, B-Mobie, Racetrack, Deaf-Dumb-Blind. Boy! I still remember the moments I actually found some of those. I have exactly the same feeling finding something via the blog. I don't really care about the covers, dates & times, for me its the tunz, the tunz, the tunz and the guys and gals who created them.

I discovered this blog business over at Orgy - I couldn't believe what that cheeky monkey was serving up. This guy Simon is looking to the next level - Rhodes is a serious place to hang out this year. Anyone got any plans for Christmas?

cheers for that matey, i saw the band loads in the 80's but he never did "race track in france" live so this a treat.

bit of a long shot here but you might be the man. i used to a pharo saunders album (cassette) left it in my car when i sold it! guess is was made in the late 70's early 80's. one track had female vocal and one lyric went "think about the one who made us" any ideas what the album..it's driving me nuts not knowing, fingers crossed and thanks again. john

Excellent presentation, Simon! And a wonderful find. It'll be the first Gil performance I've heard since his 2003(?) prison release. :-)

So glad he's managed to keep his chin-up and still performs. Hopefully a new following will develop and result in better understanding of 1960-70s culture & class tensions which spawned so much artful expression.

A radio program on NYC mentioned Gil S H today, so I went back to my laptop to listen (Spirit) - then off to your site for more of the older stuff. Thanks for info and music!!! The guys on the radio show said the man is clean (er) from drugs, and a new cd will be out 2010. "He sounds like a black Leonard Cohen" was the comments they made.

It's been the live shows I've been listening to this week since the news came in, rather than the studio albums. Especially the bootlegs you've posted here over the years, Simon. And especially this one.all best,TN

Great upload but ask a silly question but did the PCM recorded at the show have a very lossy compression than CD's as there seems to be a cut off after 15 Khz when I view the Spectral waveform of the tracks here.

Hey Omar ... dunno, that must have happened after the recording, PCMs were pretty standard 16bit 44.1kHz like CDs .... though 1977 is still a few years before that got standardised ... and I didn't use one until 1988 ... still sounds great though hey, It's Gil :)

Y'know, I listened to my first Gil albums on a cheap-ass stereo that you wouldn't give a kid. It never mattered to me......loved him no less for the lousy sound. So mp3 or flac, it is absolutely Gil, Simon. Really miss that voice of generations. Thank you for giving us all love through your work.

Thanks so much for running this blog. I don't browse the many interesting blogs I find nearly enough and I missing this Gil Scott- Heron live show. I had a search for working links and found this which may be of help to those who need part 2:

One further point re the above.I never knew that Gil's father was the first black professional footballer in Scotland. I mentioned it to my mother and she said that she had autographs of the Celtic & Third Lanark football teams from the 50's. I took a look at her old autograph book and there was Gil Heron's signature alongside the other Third Lanark football team from the 1952-53 football season.